Big Dig-Springfield? I-91 in city needs major rehab that could turn into a reimagining

The Republican | Dave RobackThe elevated section of Interstate 91 in Springfield. The section needs needs $360 million to $400 million worth of reconstruction, and officials are just starting to figure out how to pay for it and what it might look like.

SPRINGFIELD — The elevated section of Interstate 91 downtown needs $360 million to $400 million worth of reconstruction within the next few years, but local, state and federal transportation planners are only now starting to figure out how to pay for the project and what Springfield’s city center might look like when it's done.

Options on the table include demolishing the viaduct and making I-91 a surface road or burying the interstate in the style of Boston’s notorious Big Dig. Springfield’s elevated stretch of Interstate 91 has long been blamed for smothering downtown development by cutting the city off from the Connecticut River.

“People will say it really carved the heart out of the Italian-American community in the South End,” Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said. “But I have to work with the cards that have been dealt.”

State Sen. Michael R. Knapik, R-Westfield, said people had problems with the overpass from the time it opened in 1968.

"I don't think there are any preconceived notions about what to do with that artery," Knapik said. "I don't think there are any preconceived notions about how to pay for it."

The highway carries more than 66,000 vehicles through Springfield on an average weekday, according to the state Department of Transportation.

But the notion that I-91 could turn become Springfield’s Big Dig caused state Department of Transportation secretary and CEO Richard A. Davey to take a deep breath Tuesday during a visit to Springfield’s Court Square.

“In the sense this project could be transformative, yes,” Davey said. “But it sure as hell won’t be similar to the Big Dig in the way it is financed or in its execution. We have to do a better job.”

Sarno said he met privately with Davey on Tuesday to discus Interstate 91 among other issues. Davey said the state is working with the city of Somerville as it mulls taking down a similar downtown overpass. He said he's open to input for Springfield as to the fate of Springfield's overpasses.

Meanwhile, Davey said Interstate 91 has become a statewide poster child for pressing transportation needs that are not funded.

“I use it as an example all the time,” he said. “It’s one of the most important projects in the state.”

“Patches on top of patches. They are coming to the end of what patching can do,” said Brennan, whose agency helps set transportation priorities for the region. “The pounding that the road takes day after day is taking its toll. Otherwise you get yourself in a situation where you have a catastrophe and you have to shut the whole highway down.”

On Friday, two potholes opened up in the center southbound lane near the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and disabled a half-dozen vehicles, causing a huge traffic snarl.

That traffic snarl was just a small foretaste of the types of traffic disruptions that will happen while I-91 is being rebuilt, Brennan said. He suspects work could take about three years and would have to be done in sections to minimize disruptions.

The scale of an I-91 reconstruction is hard to imagine, Brennan said. At $360 million, the multi-year I-91 rehab would cost about half the total amount Massachusetts spends annually on roads and bridges. It will be about six times the size of the $55 million Great River Bridge project in Westfield. The Great River Bridge to this point has been the most expensive public works project in the region’s history.

“It’s going to have to be a very creative financial solution to this because of the order of magnitude,” Brennan said.

Making I-91 a surface road or burying it could only drive up that cost. How much extra it would cost has yet to be figured out.

State Sen. Gale D. Candaras, D-Wilbraham, and state Rep. Michael J. Finn, D-West Springfield, said financing a new I-91 will be a hot topic when the new term of the state Legislature begins in early 2013. The state will be doing a new transportation bond act, Candaras said. The Western Massachusetts delegation will make I-91 a stipulation before supporting that bond issue.